Memphis freshman small forward Dedric Lawson has entered this year’s draft in spite of an announcement from his school last week that he wouldn’t do so, reports Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated (Twitter links). The 6’8″ 18-year-old won’t hire an agent, Spears was told, so his college eligibility remains intact should he have another change of heart and withdraw by May 25th. Lawson is No. 46 in Chad Ford’s ESPN Insider rankings. Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress doesn’t have him in his top 100 but pegs him as the 28th-best freshman.
Lawson was No. 32 in the Recruiting Services Consensus Index entering college. He led the American Athletic Conference with 9.3 rebounds per game and was third with 1.7 blocks per contest this year. He also excelled on offense, averaging 15.8 points, though his 3-point accuracy wasn’t spectacular at 35.0%.
He capped his season with a double-double in a conference tournament loss to Connecticut, scoring 21 points and grabbing 11 rebounds. Still, he struggled with inconsistency, scoring at least 20 points 11 times and in single digits on seven occasions.